HiveChess Lecture: Prophylaxis in Chess & Ches960 Tournament Reminder

Hello Chess players and fans of the game,

Welcome to another HiveChess lecture with me, and in today's class, we will be looking at prophylaxis in chess. I guess the word might sound big or like something that might be hard to comprehend. But no, it is not. Once we are done with this lecture, you will see that chess can be quite simple as long as you keep it simple to one step at a time. Before we proceed, I’d like to remind you that by 15:00 GMT tomorrow, we would battle on the board. The 10th round of the Hive chess tournament promises to be different as it would be a chess960 variant. Be there!

For more information, Read the reminder post here.
https://peakd.com/hive-157286/@sam.chess/hivechess-season-1-round-10-reminder-3xc

Prophylaxis in chess simply means to prevent your opponent from making a move. That is stopping their plan before it happens. It involves thinking about what your opponent wants to do and not being only concerned about your plan. Chess is a two-player game, so you have to think for yourself and also think about how your opponent will respond.

We are going to look at a game between two legends in the game of chess. Garry Kasparov against Anatoly Karpov. To help better understand prophylaxis.

The game started with the Nimzo-Indian opening. One of the most popular responses to 1. d4, since it provides black with some fighting chance right from the get-go.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4

Bringing the bishop to b4 is a common response in the continuation of the line as it pins the white knight on c3 to the white king on e2, which in return relinquishes the center square e4.

4. Nf3 O-O 5. Bg5 c5 6. e3 cxd4 7. exd4 h6 8. Bh4

The move Bh4 is a prophylactic move played by Kasparov to maintain the pin on the f6 black knight, causing an issue in black's development and possible ideas of center breaks. When you play a move that stops your opponent's plan or prevents them from carrying out their plan before they gain the chance, that is prophylaxis.

Next up on move 13.

12. Re1 b6 13. a3

a3 is another prophylactic move from Kasaparov, which prevents black from bringing his bishop to b4. This is one of the best prophylactic moves played in the course of this game because Kasaparov saw the threat black would bring if you got to play Bb4, so he stopped it in advance with a3.

14. Bg3 Rc8 15. Ba2

Moving the bishop to a2 is another prophylactic move played by Kasparov after black made the rook move c8. Can you guess why this is a prophylactic move?

Alright, if you thought about it, that is nice. Ba2 is a prophylactic move because white sees black has a plan of moving his knight on c6 away, probably to a5, so he can hit the bishop on c4 with both the knight and the rook on c8.
Once again, Kasaparov made a move, preparing in advance for what his opponent plans on doing.

Kasaparov went on to win the game, but for this lecture, we will not dwell on how he won since we have covered the prophylactics in the game.

Here is the game link if you would like to see how Kasaprov won the game:
Game Link

Here is the game PGN:

[Event "Karpov - Kasparov World Championship Match"]
[Site "Moscow URS"]
[Date "1985.10.01"]
[Round "11"]
[White "Garry Kasparov"]
[Black "Anatoly Karpov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "dQE7SssI"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "-"]
[ECO "E21"]
[Opening "Nimzo-Indian Defense: Three Knights Variation"]
[Termination "Unknown"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 O-O 5. Bg5 c5 6. e3 cxd4 7. exd4 h6 8. Bh4 d5 9. Rc1 dxc4 10. Bxc4 Nc6 11. O-O Be7 12. Re1 b6 13. a3 Bb7 14. Bg3 Rc8 15. Ba2 Bd6 16. d5 Nxd5 17. Nxd5 Bxg3 18. hxg3 exd5 19. Bxd5 Qf6 20. Qa4 Rfd8 21. Rcd1 Rd7 22. Qg4 Rcd8 23. Qxd7 Rxd7 24. Re8+ Kh7 25. Be4+ 1-0

That's a wrap for this class until next time..

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Thanks For Reading!

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